The Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture has shelved its controversial plan to open a Portuguese restaurant in one of the five mansions in the Taipa-Houses Museum complex, according to a statement by the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) on Thursday.

The statement said an inter-departmental working group under the purview of the secretariat had decided to shelve the plan as it triggered a “heated discussion” in civil society, namely because of fears that the environment around the museum would be damaged by a restaurant in the area.

The statement also said that the mansion would remain a venue for tourism-related events.

According to the statement, a kitchen and restaurant equipment had been installed in the mansion when it was renovated between 1998 and 2000.

However, the statement said the working group decided to suspend the plan because it would have required the kitchen’s renovation and change of its outdated equipment, which could have affected the structure of the mansion and its architectural characteristics.

According to the plan, the mansion was to be converted into a Portuguese restaurant under the auspices of the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), according to a statement by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) on August 21st.

The bureau said in a follow-up statement on August 22 that the work on the transformation of the area was expected to be completed by the end of this month, adding that the budget was around 6.4 million patacas.

The IFT statement did not mention the budget after the working group decided to shelve the restaurant project.

The revamp of the Taipa-Houses Museum is jointly carried out by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) and Institute for Tourism Studies.(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily)